


Meet the Boys

by tuppenny



Series: All Ways [3]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-27 15:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15688410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuppenny/pseuds/tuppenny
Summary: The newsie gang asks to meet Davey's girl, and then the newsie gang gets to meet Davey's girl.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gracedameron](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracedameron/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jack and Katherine ask to meet Davey's significant other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is probably not going to be a super long story, not one that merits multiple chapters, but I've been writing incredibly slowly as of late, and if I don't post this now then I don't know when I'll post it, so... have this bit for now and the other bit at some date as yet to be determined.

**July 1909**  

“So when do we get to meet your mysterious librarian, Davey?” Katherine asked, wiggling her eyebrows at him as she brought the casserole to the table. 

“Yeah, Dave; I’m startin’ ta think she don’t exist,” Jack added, shoving Davey’s shoulder before settling Eleanor into her high chair and strapping her in securely.

“Kath can meet her anytime,” Davey said, moving his napkin to his lap. “Jack, though…” He turned to his friend and shook his head. “Never.”

“Whaaaaat?” Jack gasped, laying a hand over his heart.

“You’ll scare her off,” Davey said, shrugging. “I’m sorry, Jackie-boy, but it’s true. My librarian is off limits to you, both now and forevermore.”

Katherine snickered before sitting down next to Eleanor, and Jack flicked Davey’s ear.

“Ow!” Davey yelped, clapping a hand to the side of his head and shoving Jack away. “See, that’s exactly why you’re on the no list.”

“Who else is on the no list?” Katherine asked, handing four-month-old Eleanor a warm bottle and helping her hold it.

“Race. And that’s it.” 

“Oh, come on,” Jack whined. “You can’t be serious. You really think me’n Race are worse than _Romeo?”_ He scoffed. “Besides, Davey—she’ll love me! Women always do. Heck, the only thing you’ve got to worry about is her fallin’ for me an’ ditchin’ you.”

Katherine rolled her eyes and dabbed away the milk dribbling down Eleanor’s chin. “You’re really selling your case well there, dear heart.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t _encourage_ it or nothin’, macushla,” Jack grinned, turning to kiss his wife on the cheek. “Ain’t my fault I’m irresistible! But don’t worry, I’ve got lots of practice fendin’ off the ladies. I’m yours, love, body an’ soul, an’ I ain’t about ta let a little librarian come between us.”

“How generous of you,” she deadpanned.

“I know,” Jack said, reaching for a second roll. “Just one’a my many fine qualities.” 

David looked over at Eleanor. “Good luck to you, kiddo,” he said, watching the baby drink down the bottle of formula. “Your pops is a real piece of work.”

Eleanor burbled and smacked her hands on the wooden highchair tray. 

“A real catch, is what you mean,” Jack corrected, wagging his finger at Davey. “Look, Dave, insult me all ya want, but I’m dead set on meetin’ this gal. I gotta make sure she’s good enough for ya; ‘s my job.”

“It’s really not,” Davey said, biting back a laugh.

“As former leader of the Manhattan newsies, he thinks it is,” Katherine said, rolling her eyes, “And trust me, there’s no use fighting it.” 

Davey raised an eyebrow at Katherine.

“He does this with all the boys,” she said. “How did you not know that?”

Jack scratched at a scab on his arm. “Davey’s been at Columbia for what, five years? Six?” 

Davey sighed. “More years than I want to count, thanks.”

Jack laughed and made a sympathetic face. “Anyway, he ain’t been around since the boys started courtin’ f’r real,” he said, scooting his chair back so he could massage the tense muscles around Katherine’s shoulders. “An’ that means he don’t know the drill.” 

“Well, then, Davey, you’re in for a treat,” Katherine said, closing her eyes as she relaxed into Jack’s hands. “He interrogates these girls within an inch of their lives, and most of them leave crying.” Davey’s eyes widened, and Jack grinned. “It’s a wonder any of them return, honestly,” Katherine continued, humming at Jack’s touch, “But all of the ones who are brave enough to come back... well, they end up getting married to the boy they’re with, so…”

“So it works,” Jack said firmly, patting Katherine’s back as she opened her eyes and returned her attention to Eleanor, who was starting to fuss.

“That’s one way to look at it,” Davey said wryly.

Jack stuck his tongue out at Davey and reached for roll number three. “C’mon, Dave. Lemme meet her already! It’s been months!” 

“She’s not like other girls, Jack!” Davey said heatedly. “I don’t want you scaring her half to death with your so-called charm!”

“Relax, Davey,” Jack said, holding his hands up. “I don’t push girls farther’n they c’n take it; you know that.”

“You’ve never met anyone like Chaya before, I guarantee it,” Davey said, rising from his seat and pushing his chair back. “You won’t know you’ve pushed her until you’ve gone too far, and then it’ll be too late!”

“Too late for what?” Jack probed.

“Too late for—I—She—Argh!” Davey shoved his chair back under the table and stalked into the hallway, his hands balled into white-knuckled fists. “Just drop it, Jack!”

Jack opened his mouth to protest, but Katherine elbowed him and glared. “We’d love to meet her, David, but we’ll wait until you tell us you’re ready,” she said, her voice calm. “And if she expresses an interest in meeting us, perhaps you could bring her to game night.” 

David laced up his shoes. “Yeah, okay. I’ll see you guys later. Thanks for dinner.”

He left, and Katherine rounded on Jack. “He hardly even ate! You _know_ he’s sensitive about dating; why did you needle him like that?”

“I do it to everyone,” Jack protested, serving himself more food. “I wasn’t even that bad!” Katherine gave him a look, and he clicked his tongue. “Oh, come on—I bug him way worse than that on lotsa things; how was I s’posed ta know he’d have a cow over this?” 

“Well, what’s done is done,” Katherine said, shaking her head and picking Eleanor’s bottle up off the floor. “Just don’t bring it up again, alright? The librarian is off limits until Davey tells us otherwise.” Jack rolled his eyes. “I mean it, Jack,” she added, a warning note to her voice. Jack huffed in response, causing Katherine to frown and cup his chin so he was practically forced to meet her eyes. “No. No badgering Davey about this girl. Okay?”

Jack made a face to show that he found the entire situation to be completely unreasonable, but he nodded. He returned to eating, while Katherine kissed her daughter’s mostly bald head. “Don’t be as stubborn as your daddy, Eleanor,” she cautioned. “He gets himself into all sorts of scrapes, that one.”

Jack snorted. “Listen to your mother, Eleanor,” he said, still chewing, “But don’t grow up to be like her. She’s a total hypocrite. Actin’ like I’m the only stubborn one in this family…” He rolled his eyes and loaded his fork with broccoli. “That’s a laugh.”

Eleanor rocked from side to side in her chair and squealed, stretching her hands out to Katherine. 

“I love you, muffin,” Katherine replied, lifting Ellie from the high chair and placing her baby in her lap so they could both face Jack. “And I love you, too, you impossible boy.” Her voice was softer now, because even though this wasn’t a real fight, she needed to make sure they were okay.

Jack put her slight worry to rest by grinning over at her, bits of broccoli stuck between his teeth. “Mwah,” he said, miming a kiss at her. She smiled back, and he squeezed her arm in reassurance. “I’ll be patient, Ace. No more botherin’ our fav’rite Columbia grad about this, I promise. We’ll meet her eventually.” He thought for a moment, then chuckled. “Or you will, an’ I’ll hide in the closet an’ listen ta ev’ry word.”

“Perfect plan,” she said, a laugh bubbling up. “How could that possibly go wrong?” 

“It can’t,” Jack said, finishing his last mouthful and setting his silverware down with a clang. “I’m brilliant, ain’t no way I could possibly come up with a dumb idea.” He bent down slightly and chucked Eleanor’s chin. “Right, astoreen? Me an’ your mommy are the smartest people you’s ever met, yeah?”

Eleanor reached for his hand and pulled it to her mouth, gumming contentedly on his fingers.

A stupid grin spread over Jack’s face, and he looked adoringly up at Katherine. “She’s perfect, macushla,” he said, his voice tender. “I’m the luckiest man alive, I really am.”

“And I’m the luckiest woman,” she replied, leaning forward to kiss his hair. “Help me clean up the kitchen?”

“Of course.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jack forms his opinion of Chaya.

**September 1909**

 

“Are you _sure_ you want to do this?” Davey repeated, slipping his arm from Chaya’s to turn her towards him. “We can do something just the two of us instead; I won’t mind.”

“Stop making me nervous,” she chided, her rapid-fire Yiddish raising the eyes of passers-by. “I said I want to meet your friends, and I do.” She made a vain attempt to smooth her curls down and muttered, “Even if right now I want it more abstractly than I did when I first asked…” She shook her head and sighed.

Davey smiled and tucked a sideways curl behind her ear, doing more to tame her hair than she had. “Remember that no one else here speaks Yiddish, so you can tell me that you’d like to go at any time, and I’ll come up with an excuse to get us out.” She nodded and fidgeted a little. “And hey,” Davey added, sotto voce, “That also means that we can gossip about everyone right in front of them.”

“ _David!”_ She smacked him lightly on the arm, but he could tell she’d found the joke amusing. 

“Ready?” 

She took a deep breath and looked up at the tall apartment building that was home to Jack, Katherine, and Eleanor Kelly. “Yes.”

They heard the ruckus of game night from a full flight of stairs below the Kellys’ apartment, and when Davey opened the door to the apartment, he caught the moment when Chaya’s eyes went wide with panic. He was just about to pull her out of the apartment and back home when she set her face to neutral and tugged him into the chaos. 

“Dave!” Jack pushed his way through the groups of boys who were already engaged in devouring towering plates of food, trying to cheat each other at cards, or arguing about what game to play next. “Dave, ya made it!” He clapped Davey on the back and grinned, his smile rakish. “Ooooooh, and ya brought the librarian!” He rubbed his hands together and wiggled his eyebrows. 

“ _Best behavior, Jack_ ,” Davey gritted out, tugging Chaya slightly closer. “Chaya, this is Jack; it’s his apartment. He works as a cartoonist at _The World_ and led the newsboys’ strike back in 1899. Jack, this is Chaya. She used to work as a librarian at Columbia, and now she’s studying the domestic arts.” 

“So nice to meet you,” Jack said, softening his accent and extending his hand. “Dave’s right about the cartooning, but he’s bein’ generous about the strike—he was the brains of the operation. All I did was run my mouth; he an’ my wife are the ones who made sure us newsboys got treated fairly.” 

Davey made a loud noise of protest. “You did more than that, Jack, you—”

“So, domestic arts, huh?” Jack interrupted, plucking Chaya away from Davey and steering her into the kitchen. “I got a few questions for you, then. My little girl’s half birthday is coming up next week, an’ I want to make her a cake, but…” 

“How does he do that,” Davey grumbled, rubbing his hair. He’d come into this with the sole aim of not letting Chaya out of his sight, but Jack was a deft hand at weaving through crowds and slipping in and out of tight spots, whereas Davey… Well, Davey wasn’t. “Excuse me,” he said, raising his voice and sticking his elbows out to push his way through the gaggle of boys. “Sorry, Sniper, Henry, Mush, just trying to get to the kitchen, do you mind if I… Thanks… Sorry…” 

By the time Davey had pushed his way through, Chaya was directing Jack around the crowded kitchen, ordering him to fetch her this ingredient and that utensil, lecturing him on the benefits of using parchment paper when baking, and showing him how to make a double boiler using kitchenware he already owned. “…too dry,” she explained, gesturing to one cake pan and then another. “What you need to do is…”

Davey laughed to himself. He hadn’t really meant what he’d said about her studying the domestic arts; he’d said that as a way to keep Jack from prying into the arrangement that had allowed Chaya to work outside the home until her sister got married and then forced her into becoming her father’s housekeeper. Deals like that weren’t uncommon, of course, and they weren’t shameful, either—running a household was much more respectable than working outside the home for wages paid by strangers.

Still, Davey knew that Chaya missed the library and hated the sympathy of strangers, and he wanted tonight to go well, so he’d tried to shield Chaya from Jack a little bit. He’d already failed at that, obviously, but it seemed that he’d also unintentionally told the truth about Chaya—she really _had_ been studying the domestic arts. She'd known a fair amount even when she'd been working at the library, true, but now she was completely adept at the whole “running a kitchen” thing. And by the looks of it she had become a skilled cake baker in the last nine months, as well.

Davey watched as Chaya coached Jack through melting chocolate in the makeshift double boiler and gently detached herself from Jack’s enthusiastic hug by reminding him to turn off the burner. Davey felt a slow smile spread across his face as he continued to watch Chaya command the kitchen to the point where the room had nearly emptied out—she’d begun roping unwilling boys into helping her walk Jack through the entire process of making a cake, and although everyone would have preferred to be eating or drinking or playing games, no one tried to slip out of her orbit once they’d been press-ganged into helping.

Jack was sliding the cake pans into the oven by the time Chaya caught Davey’s eyes on her. He raised his eyebrows, and she winked in return, waving her hands to shoo him out the door and into the chaos. He was gone before Jack closed the oven door and straightened up.

“You could teach classes,” Jack said, his voice full of admiration. “You made it so easy!”

She gave a short laugh and reached for the kitchen timer. “You should wait until you have tasted the cake before paying me compliments, Mr. Kelly,” she said wryly. 

He made a face. “It’s Jack.” 

“Alright.”

He looked around the kitchen, noticed that they were alone, and leaned back against the counter. “So, Chaya,” he said, crossing his arms, “What are your intentions with Dave, hmm?” 

Her lips twitched and she burst into laughter. “You make it sound like I am trying to marry him, kill him, and inherit his money!”

“Are you?” Jack asked, completely unfazed. 

“No, but only because he has no money to inherit,” she said calmly. “Is there someone else here I should be chasing instead? I will happily abandon David in order to be rich.” 

Jack blinked. “I—”

“The only person here with any sort of inheritance at all is me,” said Katherine, breezing into the kitchen, “And you’d have to off me, Jack, _and_ our daughter to get it, so I hope you’re up for a triple homicide.”

“Always,” said Chaya, her dark eyes sparkling. 

Katherine laughed. “Katherine Kelly,” she said, holding out a hand. “I’m Jack’s wife and Davey’s friend. It’s so nice to meet you!”

“Likewise,” Chaya said, mischief playing across her face. “Lead me to your sharpest knives, please.”

“Ooh, I like you,” Katherine said, wagging a finger at her. “What do you think, Jack? Does she pass muster?”

Jack took a deep breath. “She’s somethin’ else, all right,” he said, shaking his head. “I shoulda known Davey’d pick someone wicked smart an’ sarcastic as sin." 

“I am not a fruit, Mr. Kelly,” Chaya said sternly. “There was no ‘picking’ involved.”

Katherine guffawed and grabbed Chaya by the hand. “Come on,” she said. “I just put Eleanor to bed, but I want to introduce you to everyone else. They’re going to love you.”

“I’ll keep an eye on the cake,” Jack said, seeing Chaya’s eyes flick to the oven. “You go on and meet the boys.” 

Chaya nodded and allowed Katherine to pull her into the hallway. 

“And Chaya?” Jack called, causing her to pause. Their eyes met, and he smiled. “Welcome to the family.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Parchment paper began to be used for baking in the early 20th century. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! <3


End file.
